iPhone 6(S)/Plus Is it time to replace this iPhone? Weird behavior.

[now i see it]

So I've been using my trusty iPhone 6 Plus every day for the last three years and it's been rock solid. Still running iOS 9.3.5.

In the last three years it has only re-sprung maybe three times randomly, but other than that, it has been running with zero issues. Everything works perfectly. That's one of the reasons why I haven't updated the OS or bought a new iPhone... This thing has been working perfectly. Never an issue with anything. It's never been dropped.

Today... Something really weird happened out of the blue and it kinda got me thinking... if this iPhone might be on the verge of bricking.

This is what happened:

Was using the iPhone as usual, browsing MR with Safari with the charge cord plugged in (as I've done off & on for three years w no issues). When the battery hit 75%, I pulled the Lightning cord out of the phone and it crashed the phone...and then it re-sprung.

After it restarted automatically, I was greeted with an "Activation Required" screen. Never seen that before.

I had to enter my Apple ID and password to get past that screen (tried turning off the phone again but no luck) and after a few tries, it apparently accepted my login info- then the phone crashed again.

After it rebooted, I tried entering my passcode, and then the home screen appeared briefly, but then it blacked out and said "Activation Required" again.

So I rebooted again.
This time I was greeted with the  logo splash screen as usual, but it hung there. The phone wouldn't boot up. So I turned off the phone again with a hard restart and it started booting up and got to the login screen this time... But it wouldn't accept my passcode. Holy crap!

So I rebooted it again... and this time I got in. Thank goodness. I was then greeted with a "Enter login credentials for my ID" (or something like that) in settings, so I went to iCloud in Settings and entered my iCloud login info and..... Everything now seems to be working fine...

But holy crap! What was that all about? I'm thinking I can't trust this iPhone anymore. I have a backup mirrored iPhone 5 with the same apps and linked to iCloud, so if my 6 plus bricks I have a backup (I also have a recent backup of the IP6), but what do you guys say?

Does this iPhone 6 Plus seem like it's on its last leg? It seems like it just experienced an aneurysm and is ready to croak.

Working fine at the moment though. Just typed this note on it.

Thanks

 

[eyoungren]

Apple has locked out iOS 9 activations on the 6 series and sometimes periodically they seem to be forcing reactivation of iOS 9 devices.

The activation screen you saw is an actual app. It locks out the login screen and won't allow you to continue until you activate. Since Apple isn't allowing iOS 9 activations on the 6 series it means in order to use your device you have to upgrade.

Apple's little way of forcing 6/6+/6s/6s+ users to upgrade. Somehow you managed to work around the activation app and get back in. It's not your device, it's Apple's heavy-handedness about upgrades.

If you were jailbroken I could suggest a way to short-circuit this, but I don't think you are. Essentially, you rename the activation app so that if this happens the system cannot find the app and run it. When that fails you just get the normal login screen.

 

[willentrekin]

I will never understand the posts that basically boil down to "I'm using an operating system that's three years out of date on hardware that will be five years old in a few months, but today it wouldn't work properly and I'm thinking it maaayyyyyyyyyyybe time to replace something."

So to answer your question: yes. Yes, it's time to replace your phone and use the most up-to-date and secure software. iOS 12.2 is now available, which means that at 9.3 you're not just three updates behind but probably more like twenty or more, some of them with critical security fixes.

 

[eyoungren]

I will never understand the posts that basically boil down to "I'm using an operating system that's three years out of date on hardware that will be five years old in a few months, but today it wouldn't work properly and I'm thinking it maaayyyyyyyyyyybe time to replace something."

So to answer your question: yes. Yes, it's time to replace your phone and use the most up-to-date and secure software. iOS 12.2 is now available, which means that at 9.3 you're not just three updates behind but probably more like twenty or more, some of them with critical security fixes.

Whatever OP decides, I'm just going to stay on 9.0.2 where I've been for the last 3.5 years. That may make me insecure as you've detailed, but I am not prepared to lose my jailbreak as it's the second to last fully-untethered jailbreak.

Whatever you may think about the security involved in THAT I am sure I will hear about momentarily.

 

[Shirasaki]

I will never understand the posts that basically boil down to "I'm using an operating system that's three years out of date on hardware that will be five years old in a few months, but today it wouldn't work properly and I'm thinking it maaayyyyyyyyyyybe time to replace something."

So to answer your question: yes. Yes, it's time to replace your phone and use the most up-to-date and secure software. iOS 12.2 is now available, which means that at 9.3 you're not just three updates behind but probably more like twenty or more, some of them with critical security fixes.

Well, same old argument. Makes a bit sense but ultimately it is mainly up to user activities to determine whether that user is safe or not.

Since last year or so I stop aggressively updating windows and some applications. Don’t really feel missing a whole lot, and my system downtime has been reduced drastically.

In summary, updating the software to the latest version is good in theory. But using older version software is not that bad.

 

[robotica]

I’d say update it to the latest version of iOS. It might just be a software glitch. You might get a couple more years out if it.

 

[eyoungren]

In summary, updating the software to the latest version is good in theory. But using older version software is not that bad.

It's fun driving the security conscious crazy when you tell them you roam the internet with old PowerPC Macs. There's a whole forum here on MR dedicated to PowerPC and many of us use them as our primary Macs. OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.8 are the highest we can go.

Right now I'm typing this on a 2003 17" PowerBook G4. If security were my focus I'd be going out of my mind right now.

 

[Shirasaki]

I’d say update it to the latest version of iOS. It might just be a software glitch. You might get a couple more years out if it.

Or, judging by the age of his device, electronics are failing, which indicates that buying a new iPhone may be necessary.
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It's fun driving the security conscious crazy when you tell them you roam the internet with old PowerPC Macs. There's a whole forum here on MR dedicated to PowerPC and many of us use them as our primary Macs. OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.8 are the highest we can go.

Right now I'm typing this on a 2003 17" PowerBook G4. If security were my focus I'd be going out of my mind right now.

Yeah. Back in 2014, I was using iPad 1 (yes, first generation iPad) to browse the internet. iOS 5.1.1 was the best I could go. Then I used iOS 7 for a good while (iPhone 4), then iOS 9 (iPad mini), until now iOS 12.2 on iPhone 6s Plus. Never got any sort of account lost or bank account breach or anything like that. If older version of the software was the culprit, I would’ve lost a lot of money already.